Alberta oil-sands messages reach Times Square

By Chris Noble

The Alberta oil-sands P.R. war has heated up again, with an unlikely venue for Round Two: Times Square.

This summer during the BP oil spill, a San Francisco-based environmental group, Corporate Ethics International, funded billboards in San Francisco, Seattle and other U.S. cities in a campaign called “Re-Think Alberta.”

Thy read “Canada’s Alberta Tar Sands — The OTHER Oil Disaster” and featured a picture of oil-covered wildlife. The billboards later appeared in Europe.

He added: “It’s a great opportunity. You’re going to have about a million and a half people see those ads over the course of the several weeks that they are on, and for the price of the ads … it’s just a tremendous opportunity to get our message out, right into the heart of the media centre of America.”

The ads, which started Sept. 1, run through mid-October in Times Square.

Still, you have to wonder. When’s the last time anyone in Times Square ever borrowed sugar from a neighbor?